On August 19, at 14:36 JST there was a 6.3 earthquake near Fukushima Daiichi. This was yet another in a series of 6+ intensity earthquakes in the area. In our previous report the connection between these strong earthquakes and changes at the plant were outlined.

Below is the technical interpretation of the changes caused at Fukushima Daiichi by user screenname “Edano” (no relation to the Prime Minister) and commentary by Dean.

Unit 1:
Radiation at drywell B at 433 Sv/h up from 416 Sv/h, an increase of 17 Sv/h
Temperatures in unit 1 are all now below 100 celcius. There was also a slight pressure drop at unit 1.
Unit 1 drywell B
8/19 17:00 433
8/19 23:00 335

Unit 2:
Unit 2 saw a slight drop in temperature after the earthquake.

Unit 3:
Unit 3 saw a continuing slight temperture increase since the August 17th earthquake. There was also a drop in water levels and an increase in pressure in unit 3 after the most recent earthquake.

Interpretation:
Pressure leaves #1 and 2 reactor on every quake. pressure in form of radioactive steam. probably thru holes in the secondary containment. Unit 3, maybe they reduced cooling water, so that temps rise and water level drop. but the correlation to the earthquake indicates a quake caused loss of water.

Another possibility was posed by Dean:
“The corium forms a crust of some sort that may affect the radiation level readings and then another EQ and all that is broken up with increasing levels of radiation.”
Our reactor data graphs can be found here.